1. Field of the Disclosed Embodiments
The disclosed embodiments relate to generating a system and interface for connecting a product or service provider and a consumer in search of, or in need of such product or service.
2. Introduction
Coventional Information sites (e.g, websites, software applications, computing devices, etc.) exist for individuals and consumers to offer goods and services for sale at their standard or discounted price or at a price determined using an auction or variable pricing system. However, often consumers spend time seeking a service provider or entity to buy goods or obtain services by searching on-line or using a telephone directory. In this manner, consumers often have to spend considerable time and effort to contact several service providers via information sites or telephone to obtain an acceptable price and availability from the goods or service providers. They also are forced to search using Internet search engines or generic websites that offer multiple types of products with the hope that a product or service provider who carries the product they are looking for will show up in a search result, under the search terms they are looking for, and that the product or service provider presented will have the product at the price they are willing to pay, and be in a relevant geographic areas.
Additionally Service Providers and product or service providers spend time and resources in an effort to attract consumers for their products and services via advertising. Current advertising methods such as television, radio, and conventional online advertising, while effective in presenting information to large groups of potential buyers based on traditional demographic criteria, such as general geograhic location, and in the case of internet search engines, particular topics of interest indicated by the search, they still are not efficient. These methods require the buyer of a product or service provider's products to be exposed to the specific advertising for which that product or service provider has paid. In the scenario of internet advertising, a product or service provider's potential consumer perform a search for a term or group of terms that will return that product or service provider as part of a paid or unpaid search result on an internet search engine, or visit a particular website displaying advertising from that product or service provider.
In the event that a product or service provider does chose to develop an online advertising campaign, the product or service provider must now spend resources to manage that campaign, and entice viewers to visit their website through the use of limited advertising text, hyperlinks and advertising banners. If the consumer does select the product or service provider's advertisement it is then up to the product or service provider's website to convert the passive searcher into a consumer with effective online lead generation (which differs in effectiveness by industry and from product or service provider-to-product or service provider). Additionally not all current methods of online advertising account for “window shoppers,” or users who click on the wrong link, both of which cost the advertiser money. As most product or service providers do not specialize in web design, the product or service provider's conversion rate becomes a secondary problem once a potential consumer has selected the product or service provider's website. A high conversion rate can reduce the cost per acquisition while a low conversion rate will increase the cost per acquisition.
Ultimately, regardless of the a product or service provider's ability to maintain or afford conventional methods of advertising for purposes of consumer acquisition, that advertising is expensive and does not allow the product or service provider to exactly target or reach their preferred clients. Moreover, these conventional methods rely on the consumer being exposed to that product or service provider and selecting to work with or purchase from that particular product or service provider which can be cost prohibitive for most small to medium product or service providers.
The less traditional or common place method of client acquisition is through purchasing of Leads. Leads are generally considered: consumer contact information and limited information about their interest or needs, which have been generated by some source (such as a survey, contact form, or an account created when purchasing some other service). This method, while allowing for direct access to consumers does not necessarily ensure that the consumer: a) is expecting to be contacted by a particular product or service provider, b) is interested in a product or service providers specific product(s) or industry, c) is a client that matches a particular product or service provider's specific criteria, or d) has not been contacted by numerous other product or service providers who acquired their contact information, thereby devaluing any contact by a particular product or service provider. Conversely, from the consumer's perspective, this method relies on all parties who have access to their contact information to 1) keep it secure, 2) ensure their privacy is maintained, 3) provide their information to only the people they desire, and 4) only share their information with persons or entities they specifically authorize. These conventional methods also require consumers, if they are interested in multiple products, to produce multiple leads thereby reducing any current practical implementation to little more than online versions of “Classified Wanted Ads”. Additionally, once a consumer has submitted their information, they do not necessarily have any knowledge of by whom it is received.